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A satellite designed to test two fundamental predictions made by Albert Einstein about the universe is ready for launch, 45 years after it was first proposed, NASA and Stanford University officials said.

Since 1959, Gravity Probe B has overcome a half-dozen attempts at cancellation, countless technical hurdles and several delayed launches. The NASA-funded, university-developed spacecraft is now scheduled to begin its mission following an April 17 liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.

The unmanned, Earth-orbiting satellite is designed to test two of Einstein's predictions about the nature of space and time, and how the Earth and other bodies warp and twist the fabric that combines the two.

At the spacecraft's heart are four pingpong-sized balls of quartz, the most perfect spheres ever made. To ensure accuracy, the balls must be kept chilled to near absolute zero, in the vacuum of the largest thermos ever flown in space, and isolated from any disturbances in the quietest environment ever produced, Anne Kinney, director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's division of astronomy and physics, said Friday.

Once in space and set spinning, the orientation of the balls should change -- unless Einstein was wrong.

He proposed in 1916 that space and time form a structure that can be curved by the presence of a body, like the Earth, warping it like the dimple created by the heft of bowling ball resting on a soft mattress. That distortion accounts for gravity.

Two years later, others suggested that the rotation of such a mass should drag space-time with it, twisting the structure of the fabric.

If theory holds, the mass and rotation of the Earth, 397 miles below the probe, should throw the alignment of the spinning balls off kilter in subtle but measurable ways.

The warping effect has been measured before. The twisting effect, called frame-dragging, has never been directly detected. Gravity Probe B aims to detect both.

odd that their doing this the same time their doing creation testing on mini black holes through cern at the largest linear particle accelerator in the world. If people would notice were on earth, a sphere in space/time, things not only flow in a round inertia field, but in a spherical one. Earth bends, and twists space. That defines our time. Thought on things orbiting earth, just make me thing of the moon, it's still in the earths space field. Thus time field. Either way, we've never gone farther then it...in my knowledge.

Say their testing on black hole creation, works, say they don't realize or tale into account, were not a freakin solar system with a collapsed super nova, the pure speculation that the life of a sun, the placement of it, doesn't matter in the origin, and workings of a black hole is idiocy, when you think about simple things like the heat from a sun in place of our moon, vs 2 planets away. Either way, I hope to whatever, that were not going to unleash some horrible shit in the next coming years.

Anything from war, to dimensional tears, to multiverse paradoxes, to whatever...I don't think anyone but people like Einstein pondered the realness of how we as human kind just jump in the seat, half-cocked. All the time thinking that scientific percentile is 90%. When it's really more like 20-30%, and were lucky as hell.

mm but what do I care, except for that we need a bit of history to inspire some motion to our ocean here. Some WWIII going on, so we can all just move on, and throw away the stupid shit. Just a for instance, we keep history, why? To remind us, instill morals bla bla. Wit hout it? We choose, based on the here, and now. Why like the past denote our future? Cause that's what we do. I say burn the establishment. It's obvious what is needed, if we want to keep fantasy books, field study books, whatever. If we want to keep these we just take the history out of them.

Their then left with a shell of data, all pure science, no Einstein said this, Kepler did that, this Rosen obsession. I'm talking all of it though. Have the only source of history be religion. Over time religion WILL die. It started quite a while ago, and it will die down to a small percentage. Some may keep records, maybe not, but people jump bandwagons, they want change, and a better life for the most part. Life without religion, with race, or creed, is one where were all equal, but not constantly changing, bitching about, and proclaiming this historical RIGHT to whatever.

I really believe, and I could argue to my death about burning the past. To make a better future. But really those debating it, are just fighting change, they don't want it, they fear it, and in all reason they want this sense of frailty, this disconnection from a unity. They don't want a utopia, or less crime, or no need for government. Just peaceful hierarchical systems. They want, anarchy. In a anarchic world, one with chaos, and with constant tries at piece, everyone has a chance. Everyone can do whatever they like.

In a world without this, people aren't forced to do anything, they feel, and want to so much that they lose control over what is wrong. They do what is right. For the people, for children, for loved one's, for themselves. Heh, John Lennon, a great man. The only person to sum it up so easily. The first time I heart that song, I cried.

yea so that's my piece I give, my peace I give.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!Beware the Jubjub bird, and shunThe frumious Bandersnatch!"